Super Cucumber

The evolution of a small student project, Super Cucumber is built from a deep love of the 2D platformers of old. We are combining aspects of our favorite platforming classics, with some more modern evolutions of the genre.

Cucumber and his adversaries have distinct, playful, cartoonish designs, and they will occupy a wide variety of backdrops as the game progresses.

Cucumber, the hero of our story, and the finest Aardvark super hero in all of video games.

Cucumber has a variety of mobility and combat skills, and levels are designed to test your mastery of these abilities in unique and interesting ways.

Use fireballs as platforms!

Take leisurely arrow rides!

Face off against many foes!

We have gone to great lengths to make movement in the game fluid and responsive, and cut out traditional fat of the platformer genre like limited numbers of lives and meaningless collectibles. With Super Cucumber, we hope to deliver a game that feels both instantly familiar, and fresh and exciting at the same time.

Taking Super Cucumber To Release: The game is still very early, but our current build has many of the central mechanics in place that will lay the groundwork for gameplay in the final product. Our work going forward will be largely about content generation. We will create more enemies and hazards for Cucumber to overcome, more bosses for him to face, and more levels for him to explore. Some of this content is already designed and waiting to be implemented, but much of it is still a work in progress, and part of a more general road map for taking the game to completion.

Down the Drain

Proof that inspiration can come from anywhere, Down the Drain was conceived from a comment made by Lorraine while cleaning the bathroom sink. That idea has grown into a 2D shooter, “Rouge-Light”-type game, with a concentration on exploration. It's a quirky, fun, and endearing game all around, so join Marta on her journey to find the many things that go bump in the pipes.

Defeat enemies and clean out pipes!

Hyper Realistic Plumbing Action!

Master a variety of tools to get the job done!

The many looks of Marta, our pipe dwelling hero!

Taproot and the Ghostfish, some of the big baddies you'll face in the drain.

Down the Drain contains tiers of levels ordered by difficulty, and dispenses levels from these tiers at random on any given run through the game. Parts of the layout within any level are also semi-randomly generated, such as enemy quantity and layout, which adds a nice layer of replay-ability to the game. We want Down the Drain to be less about just completing the game, and more about making repeated runs through it to maximize your score and minimize completion times.

Taking Down the Drain to Release: Presently, the core gameplay of Down the Drain has been more or less completed. The biggest remaining pieces are the three additional bosses and the other level types. Thanks to the pseudo-random-ish way the actual levels themselves are designed, creating basic levels is relatively simplistic. Additional complexity in level design will come as we finalize the new mechanics that will make up the later portions of the game. Each boss fight however will take even more TLC than individual levels. We want each of these encounters to be particularly memorable, which requires repeated iterations of design, implementation, testing, updates, and testing again. We also have another mode planned for Down the Drain which we will be sharing details on soon. Each mode in the game will also allow players to unlock collectibles like alternate outfits that Marta can wear. Most of these newer features have been designed on paper, and some are already partially implemented, but they are all still works in progress.

Cubicorn Games is a two person team comprised of Dustin Morabito and Lorraine Ferraiuolo. We studied Computer Science with a concentration in Game Design together at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, and we are now trying our hand at indie development! We want to make great games, and help to grow the independent community in our region.

Until now, we've been developing and funding both of these games on our own, but in order to reach some of our loftier goals, we need your support. Part of making these the best games they can be has always involved two goals we've had that are not directly tied to devlopment:

Sharing the Games in person and Receiving Feedback: Even with our earliest builds, we have been attending local events like Maker Faire Detroit and Youmacon and having people play our games in person. We''ll continue doing local events over the course of this campaign (check the "Updates" section for details), but we also want to cast a wider net of exposure to help shine a light on areas not known for producing video games. With a little help from you, we can make it to more events, get some fresh feedback from new players, and prove that games can come from Detroit, or anywhere else where determined developers are willing to work hard.

Release On Console Platforms:
We love our PC’s to death, and while we’re not currently working on anything for mobile, we've had some great times there too, but deep down we know that our hearts belong on a shag carpet in front of the television, controller in hand, ready to take on a new virtual world. The experiences we had on consoles not only shaped our taste in games, they helped make us who we are. Through them we learned that a pile of good pixels can defeat a pile of evil pixels. They taught us that with enough practice and perseverance, you can overcome almost anything, even a level that’s really, really hard. Things may be very different now than they were even a few years ago, but we still believe there is enormous value in games that are challenging but fair, that respect the player’s time, and that provide a rewarding sense of accomplishment. We want to provide another small avenue for a new generation to get the same feelings from video games that led us to make them in the first place, and light the same spark in them that was lit in us so many years ago. We can't afford all of the console development hardware we need on our own, but with your help, we can keep small engaging games alive and well for years to come.

These games won't be fully funded by this campaign, and we'll still be spending money out of pocket to make them a reality, we're just looking for a boost from you guys to help get us through to release.

Name in the Credits: For any donation $1 or more, we will include your name in the credits of Super Cucumber and Down the Drain. Receiving a donation of any size is an honor for us, and we'd like to show our gratitude to anyone who offers us their support to help make these games a reality

Podcast Shout-out: For all donations of $3 or more, we'll give you a short verbal thank you on our Bi-Weekly podcast. We do the show with a handful of close friends, and discuss recent occurrences in the world of video games, and a bunch of other nonsensical stuff. Small projects like these are personal by nature, and we do the the show to give anyone who's interested a deeper look at who we are and what we're about.

Game Downloads: Each $6 and $12 donation will get you a digital copy of Down the Drain or Super Cucumber respectively, and all donations $18 or more will receive both games when they are released. Backers can choose from any of our currently announced platforms (PC, Wii U or PS4), and the current plan is to launch all of these versions of each game in March 2016.

If we meet our first few stretch goals, additional platforms will be added (Mac, Linux, and PS Vita). These additional versions will launch later than our initial platforms, but backers who choose the PS4 version will get free access to the Vita version as well, and backers who choose the PC version will receive free access to the Mac and Linux versions. we currently plan to provide PC distribution using Humble Bundle, and through Steam as soon as we make it through Greenlight. If we are not greenlit by the time the games launch, Steam keys will be provided to PC backers once we make it onto the Steam store.

Note for International Backers: We are an extremely small team, and as such, we are slightly resource constrained when it comes to localization and international certification. Unfortunately, this means that we will only be able to guarantee PC versions of the games to international backers. We apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the international support!

Soundtrack Downloads: Any donation of $25 or more will get downloadable versions of the soundtracks for Super Cucumber and Down the Drain. Each soundtrack will likely contain 10-15 songs, and we plan to distribute these through Humble Bundle and Steam as well.

Beta Release Access: Backers who donate $40 or more will gain access to a backer exclusive beta build of Super Cucumber and Down the Drain. We plan to release both builds in August 2015, take feedback from backers after they've had a chance to check it out, and do our best to address your suggestions in the final release of each game.

Limited Edition Posters: Backers who pledge $60 or more will be able to choose from one of two limited edition posters, one for Super Cucumber, and one for Down the Drain. These posters will both be 24'' X 18'', printed on beautiful glossy stock, and you can receive them either clean and untainted by Sharpie, or signed by the two of us. Backers who pledge $75 or more will receive both limited edition posters. We expect to ship the posters slightly before the games launch, most likely in February 2016. Shipping Rates For Poster Rewards: USA = Free, Canada = $10, International = $15.

Previews of these super fancy posters!

Face in the Game: If you donate $100 or more, we will put your face in Super Cucumber. We will contact backers to provide a photo of themselves, and we will cut out your face, compress it slightly to get a nice pixelated look, and add it to the background of one of our game levels. Our current plans are to add backer images to our second world (a wild west saloon) set against wanted posters, or to our third world (an office building) set against an employee of the month plaque. We also reserve the right to do something else equally silly with your photo if inspiration strikes us, but we promise it will still be good.

Design a Marta Costume: Backers who make donations of $250 or more will get to help us design an alternate costume for Marta. Down the Drain will feature a variety of alternate costumes that will be unlockable during gameplay, and we'll work with you to come up with some runway worthy style for our favorite snake/plumber.

Design a Cucumber Enemy: Backers who donate $500 or more will help us design an enemy in Super Cucumber. We will coordinate with you for ideas on the character design and basic mechanics of the enemy, then work from there to make a balanced adversary that is worthy of your vision and Cucumber's contempt.

Founding Backer: By donating $1000 or more, you will receive all $500 rewards, and our boundless gratitude. You will receive a place of honor in the credits of each game we ever make, and we will provide you with a copy of every game we ever release. This vote of confidence in our ongoing efforts in game development is amazing, and we'll do everything we can to be worthy of it.

Going Above and Beyond

Hitting our funding goal would be an amazing honor, and we are eternally grateful to everyone who donates, comments here, or shares this page to help get the word out.

If we manage to surpass our initial funding goal, every additional dollar will help give us leeway to go further and do better. Additional funding will allow us to put more content into the game, have more time to make that content great, get to more events to get feedback in person, and put the games on even more platforms then before!

Here is a preview of what we have planned for additional funding, with more information on other tiers coming later in the campaign:

Questions - Comments

If you have any questions or would like to share some thoughts, you can post them on the comments section of this page, or email them to kickstarter@cubicorngames.com, and we will follow up with a personal reply or an update here as soon as we can. If you'd like to hear us discuss your question, or just have something silly you want to hear us talk about, send it to podcast@cubicorngames.com, and we'll do our best to fit your topic in around the nonsense.

In Conclusion

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this project. If you have the means to donate, we appreciate any contribution no matter the size, and if you choose to share this campaign with friends and family, you will have our profound gratitude. Any exposure we can get helps us keep doing what we love, and means the world to us.

Risks and challenges

Since there is only two of us, there are obvious limitations to the speed of development at our disposal. Lorraine is currently working full time on game development, and Dustin is splitting his time between game development and a day job in web development. That said, we have almost 3 years of combined experience shipping software professionally, and numerous game and non-game student projects under our belts, so we are used to working with deadlines, and will apply all of our preexisting project management skills to getting these games polished and released on time.

The other major risk factor for these projects will be releasing the games on multiple platforms. We have already had functional builds up on PC and Wii U for months now, with testing on PS4 to begin soon after this campaign ends, but there is always a chance for unforeseen complications when dealing with multiple platforms. We planned long in advance to use the Unity Engine for Super Cucumber and Down the Drain, to help mediate the difficulty of releasing across so many platforms, and we will do our best to continue testing early to avoid a last minute sprint for certification on each platform. If complications do arise however, we will try to keep you updated on any situation as it develops, and everything possible to keep the wheels greased and the train on the tracks.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

-Digital Soundtrack

You'll get everything listed above, as well as downloadable versions of the soundtracks to Super Cucumber and Down the Drain. Feel free to tolerate these kinda ok songs in the workplace, in the home, or anywhere your busy life may take you.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $40 or more
About $40

-Beta Access

You'll get everything listed above, plus beta access to both games later this year. Try a sample size preview of Down the Drain and Super Cucumber before their final release, and let us know what you think. What's good? What's slightly less good? Play a larger part in charting the course for these games by giving us pre-release feedback, and we'll take your comments to heart as we move forward with development.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $60 or more
About $60

-One Special Edition Poster

You'll get everything listed above, as well as a limited edition poster for either Super Cucumber or Down the Drain. Check out the description to see samples of what they will look like and imagine how smug you can be by having a poster for an obscure video game. That's like, so underground man.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

-Both Special Edition Posters!

You'll get all $40 rewards, and not one, but TWO limited edition posters! Hand crafted by dedicated promotional material artisans, these posters are sure to delight, and would serve as a wonderful conversion piece at your next dinner party, where you can rub them both in Carol's snooty, stuck-up face.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

-Your Face in the Game!

You'll get all $70 rewards, and we'll put your face in Super Cucumber. Provide us with a dapper looking headshot of your big bad self, and we'll use our patent-pending "Crop" and "Compress" technology to add a messy, pixelated pile of you to the game. Your visage will receive boundless admiration for generations to come, like a Greek god covered in JPEG artifacts.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

-Help Design a Snake Costume!

You'll get all $100, rewards and the chance to design an alternate costume for Marta. We'll work with you to create a new outfit for our pipe cleaning reptilian heroine and add a bit of your own personal flavor to Down the Drain.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

-Help Design a Cucumber Enemy!

You'll get all $250 rewards, and the chance to design an enemy in Super Cucumber. We've got worlds that span a variety of settings. Stone castles, sci-fi research centers and office buildings are just some of the many areas that Cucumber's adventures will take him, so there's room for nearly any kind of adversary! Help us make a memorable foe for Cucumber, and give the game a small chunk of game play that's all your own.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

-All our stuff, forever!

Wow, you made it this far down the page, huh? Bestow upon us this unreasonable amount of money, and you'll receive all $500 rewards, a special founding contributor credit on all of our games, and a copy of each and every game we ever release. Your support means the world to us, and a donation of this caliber is beyond flattering. You're like Ghandi if he were more attractive, and also loved video games.